


Recollecting the Normal

by Entwinedlove



Category: Captain America (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Post-Black Panther (2018), ignores infinity war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:00:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26433787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Entwinedlove/pseuds/Entwinedlove
Summary: Bucky muses on normalcy.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Hermione Granger
Kudos: 28
Collections: Het Swap Exchange 2020





	Recollecting the Normal

**Author's Note:**

  * For [raktajinos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raktajinos/gifts).



Bucky woke up to the feeling of small hands massaging his scalp and playing with his hair. He hummed in appreciation. Hermione paused for a moment, and he looked up at her. His head was on her lap where he'd fallen asleep during the movie they had been watching. It had been some strange supernatural thriller that hadn't made sense in the first half-hour. He had decided a nap was a better use of his time.

She restarted her ministrations and asked softly, "Do you remember how we met?"

He tensed and then relaxed. He always did when she asked her Remember Questions. His therapist had said they were meant to catch him off-guard. After years of negative conditioning, though, he expected pain at the word "remember." He didn't think he was getting better, but Hermione and his therapist said he was.

"You stumbled into Shuri's lab looking for the bathroom after a wild party in the capital of Wakanda," he answered straight-faced.

Hermione's tawny eyebrow raised. "Oh, is that how you recall it?" she teased. There was understanding in her brown eyes. She knew he was okay when he gave her ridiculous answers.

Bucky grinned at her. "I was getting Princess Shuri to work on the wiring in my arm when you showed up in her lab, exploring. It was your first time in Wakanda. You'd been invited to celebrate the birth of the King's daughter."

She scratched his scalp with her fingernails. "What did we talk about?"

"I think you did most of the talking. It had been so long since I'd talked with a dame I was interested in I sort of stuttered and went mute." He could still summon up the odd mix of instant attraction and lingering interest he'd felt when he'd seen her. She'd been just as curious and awed by the Wakandan tech as he'd been.

Hermione laughed softly. "You did. I thought you were angry. It wasn't until later that I realized you had been attempting to flirt with me."

"I brought you a spray of wildflowers and asked you out dancing. My first date in—well—the twenty-first century. I made a complete fool of myself too. After you said yes, I had to figure out where to take you. Wakanda's nightlife was a bit too wild for me at the time."

"Still is. You're a homebody."

"So are you, though." He shrugged. "I wasn't always," Bucky said. He thought back to what he could recollect of his youth. The sweat and elated exertion of dancing with an attractive dame, smell of salt and the ache in his back from working at the docks, the smell of Steve's asthma cigarettes, the feel of his best friend at his side. There were hints and flashes of memory but nothing solid, nothing he could hold on to, like water slipping through splayed fingers.

Hermione's fingers tapped on his head; the sound and sensation tickled slightly. "Stay with me," she murmured.

He must have started to get lost in the past. He looked back up at her to keep himself present in the moment. After several long, intentional deep breaths he said, "Thank you."

"What did I wear on our date?"

"A blue and white polka dot dress with a fluffy skirt. I think you were going for something that I'd find pleasing or familiar. You were a decade late in your fashion choice." He could see the navy fabric, too heavy for the style, weighing down the white petticoat she'd worn underneath it in his mind. She may have not got the right decade but he'd still found her dazzling.

Hermione rolled her eyes and returned to playing with his hair. "Yes, well, I hadn't planned on going on a date while I was in Wakanda, so I had to make do with what Clothing Modification Charms I could think of from school. They weren't something I was particularly interested in."

They sat there for a few more minutes before she ceased her play, moving one of her hands up quickly to cover her mouth as she yawned.

"Bedtime?" he asked.

She nodded and gave him a wordless, "Mm-hmm."

Bucky got up and offered his hand to help her up. He watched her as she turned off the television and padded to the bedroom in socked feet. He went and check the front door and then the back, making sure the locks were engaged. Her magical wards may have been impenetrable, but he always felt better with a locked door these days.

He found her at the bathroom sink brushing her teeth. He ran his tongue along his top teeth looked at them in the mirror. He shrugged and headed back towards the bedroom. From behind him, she cleared her throat. Looking back at her, she had a determined glint in her eye and his toothbrush held out to him. He grinned at her and took it.

Spitting the toothpaste from her mouth she said, "You better brush your teeth if you expect me to kiss you goodnight."

"Is that so?" he asked, stepping up to his sink to wet his toothbrush. The toothpaste her mother had recommended was green and white and it squished out of the tub onto the bristles of his brush in a smooth little line. It tasted like spearmint.

"That's so," she agreed as she picked up the mouth wash.

It felt good to play and tease like this. It had been so long since he'd had that sort of relationship with anyone. He thought of his relationship with Steve and how stunted it had felt since the Winter Soldier had gone after Captain America. It seemed like ages ago now. It had been at Hermione's urging and support that he'd made the effort to rekindle his relationship with his oldest friend, but he was exceedingly glad he'd done it. There was almost a sense of normalcy to his days now.

If one counted magic, super soldier strength, and a metal arm made of the rarest material on earth as normal.


End file.
